Turning off the distracting parts of the Internet | Hacker News Reader

Turning off the distracting parts of the Internet

blog.rescuetime.com

26 pointsbfioca13 comments

I think the killer question is, "Is Hacker News in your blocked sites list?"

This looks like a killer feature! I've been using LeechBlock, but this looks to be even better.

On a mild tangent I stumbled across a utility that'll let you lock screen for a period of time:

http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/05/04/reducing-inter...

I haven't dared install it just yet, but it might be helpful to those of you who - like me - have most of your really distracting stuff running inside screen.

This can be really useful. I've gotten some good mileage out of Stealth Kiwi [1], a Greasemonkey script with a similar goal. But I find it's even better if I can improve my habits to the point where I don't need such a tool.

1. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8616

I've tried a few such solutions. Worked for some time but there was one problem: too many clicks. If I want to use it often (and I do) even 1 click too many kills a feature for me. So if it's going to be easy AND effective - I'll happily use it.

Personally I've learned to focus without aids. Though I do have one aid - the phrase "A hanging concentrates the mind." Comes up whenever there's a deadline.

There's lots to be said for aimless thought. It's where innovation comes from.

Typo - "Their getting good at these tests, and it’s costing us." - "They're"

While on the subject, "blcoking" in the screen shot.

Yeah oops - it's just a mockup. :)

There is already a Mac app that does this (and you choose which sites to block)

http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/

If you read the post it mentions that apps like self control are imperfect because you have to keep telling it which sites to block. RescueTime has a huge part of the internet already categorized and scored as distracting or not and lets you tune those settings in broad strokes - so if you go to a site you've never even heard of, if it's a distracting site you'll be blocked without having to have entered it.

Nice idea, but I'd probably switch it off...

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